World’s FairsFound, not built?
Paris 1900Investigate

Investigate · Paris 1900

Le Grand Palais, Exposition universelle de 1900

Le Grand Palais, Exposition universelle de 1900
1 clue in this photo

1Masonry, not plaster

A stone colonnade under a glass vault

The Grand Palais has a stone colonnade under a glass vault, with bare trees. The record gives a nave of about 200 m built in about three years.

The questionHow were the stone and iron for a 200 m nave quarried, cast, hauled and set in three years?

Photo: Unknown photographer · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Paris 1900Case file

Same kind of clue, elsewhere

Masonry, not plaster · London 1851Solid wall at the lower levelWhat is that masonry base, when was it laid, and did it carry an earlier structure?Masonry, not plaster · Philadelphia 1876Memorial Hall: stone at the openingMemorial Hall was always meant to stay, but what does that say about the 'temporary' halls standing beside it?Masonry, not plaster · Paris 1889Tile and stone on the Beaux-Arts palaceWhich of these surfaces are plaster and which are fired tile or stone, and has anyone ever tested a fragment?Masonry, not plaster · Chicago 1893Caryatids on the Palace of Fine ArtsIf this palace had a brick core, how many of the others did too?Masonry, not plaster · Atlanta 1895Rough-faced stone at the New York BuildingWhy put a heavy stone base under a building said to be temporary?Masonry, not plaster · Atlanta 1895The Woman's Building on a stone-look baseWhat was this base made of, and what happened to it after the fair?

All clues others missed →